Bracha Cabot

Advance photo/Jan Somma-Hammel“If I can help somebody, I do it,” says Bracha Cabot, reviewing paperwork in her office at Congregation Temple Emanu-El, Port Richmond. Charity and justice are priorities.Bracha Cabot made “the rounds” when she moved to Staten Island in 1970.

She read the paper each day to plot her nightly course — attending one community meeting after another.

“I felt I have to establish myself in the community and meet people, to do something for myself besides cooking and cleaning,” said Mrs. Cabot, a New Springville resident.

She found her niche visiting nursing home residents on the High Holy Days as a member of the National Council of Jewish Women, quickly assuming the presidency of the Richmond County Section.

It would lead to her appointment as executive director of the Council of Jewish Organizations (COJO) of Staten Island, a position she has held for 29 years.

In that role, and in the choices she makes every day, Mrs. Cabot upholds the ideals of tzedakah — a Hebrew word meaning charity and justice. It is her determination to make the world a better place which led to her selection as a 2009 Advance Woman of Achievement.

Advance photo/Jan Somma-HammelWorking with Sonia Kemelman of Rossville, Mrs. Cabot takes inventory of the items in the COJO kosher food pantry. When she established the pantry in 1980, it served 400 clients; today, it serves 2,500 people a month.
“Part of my tradition is mitzvah, doing a good deed daily,” Mrs. Cabot said, a Star of David sparkling around her neck. “If I can help somebody, I do it.”

KOSHER FOOD PANTRY

At the helm of COJO, Mrs. Cabot established the borough’s first kosher food pantry, initiated Kosher Meals on Wheels, hosted the first public menorah lightings, raised money to donate Holocaust literature to Island schools — both public and parochial — and collected thousands of pounds of potatoes in annual latke drives each Hanukkah so no Jewish family would go without the holiday staple.

And even today, as the economy empties her shelves and budget cuts threaten her nonprofit’s bank account, Mrs. Cabot holds true to the principle on which the pantry was founded in 1980 when finding kosher food was the biggest obstacle she faced: “To not turn away anybody.”

In its first year, the pantry served 400 clients; today, it serves 2,500 a month.

“There are so many people. How do you turn them away? Who do you turn away?” she asked, knowing her questions have no answers. “In a tough time, it’s more important to do something for the people. You can’t let them be on the street.”

The traditions of mitzvah were learned growing up with her brother, Elin, in Tel Aviv, in an apartment near the beach. Her parents, Josef and Chana Lifschitz, donated to schools, gave food to the poor on the holidays and helped resettle refugees before Israel was a state.

“I came from a traditional, charitable family,” she said while sitting in COJO’s basement offices at Congregation Temple Emanu-El in Port Richmond, where posters of Israel — and multiple accolades — decorate the pink walls. “My childhood was wonderful. My family was close.”

ISRAELI ARMY SERVICE

After high school, she began her two years of mandatory service in the Israeli Army, where the troops were often on-call and under attack from “missiles from all over, from Egypt and Syria, especially Syria, at the Golan Heights.”

“All of a sudden, you become independent,” she said. “I was thrown into the world to fend for myself.”

After her discharge as a sergeant at the age of 20, she left for America to study business administration, a field yet to take hold at home.

New York City in 1962 was exactly what Mrs. Cabot expected.

“I knew it’s big,” she said. “I loved every minute of it.”

She rented an apartment on the East Side while studying at the City University of New York. She fell in love with the grandeur, the diversity, the nightlife, the museums, the changing seasons — and yes, even the snow.

“It was the first time I ever saw it,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes. “I still love it. I’m not saying snow every day, but it’s something I missed from my childhood.”

After graduating, she worked for six years as an assistant to the economist for the Israeli government.

FORTUITOUS BLIND DATE

In 1969, she went on a blind date with Gerald Cabot to an Israeli night club in the Village. They married in 1970 and moved to Staten Island, where Mr. Cabot was a science teacher at Prall Intermediate School, West Brighton. They lived in Silver Lake for two years before settling in New Springville.

Mrs. Cabot left the workforce to raise her children, Michael and Tammy, but she wanted more for herself. When she became president of the Richmond County Section of the National Council of Jewish Women, she held the borough’s first-ever symposium on child abuse. A support group for women on the verge of abuse followed.

She also created the Mother’s Place, a program for new mothers to the Island to learn about services for children and families. At the same time, she began a program for seniors — a place for them “to play cards, to talk, to socialize, to get them out of the house.”

By 1980, Mrs. Cabot, already a delegate to COJO, was offered the position of executive director.

Mrs. Cabot describes the birth of her granddaughter, Abigail Cabot, 1 A, as her happiest moment.
Mrs. Cabot calls her work inspiring and rewarding and tiring at times.

WORLD TRAVELER

She takes time for herself whenever she can — sometimes buying a ticket “to wherever, whatever the cost.”

With her husband, who died three years ago, she traveled the world over: Europe, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and Israel, always Israel, to this day every three months.

“I love Staten Island,” she said. “I have everything here. I go to Israel often. It’s also my home. Where I live is not just a house, it’s not just a back yard. You have to be involved, be part of your community. That’s everything. What you give will reward you 10 times as much.”-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Birthday

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel. “I’m a Virgo.”

SHARES SIGN WITH

Lauren Bacall; Actress, model; September 16, 1924

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the City University of New York.

Family

Wife of the late Gerald Cabot; mother of Michael Cabot of Cherry Hill, N.J., and Tammy Cabot of Manhattan, grandmother of Abigail Cabot, 1 A.

Most proud of

“I am proud of my children, not only because they’ve developed their own careers, but because they themselves are very charitable people.”